Sunday, December 18, 2016

Comets Get First Road Win

The Kansas City Comets earned their first road win of the season on the third time of asking last night in Florida where the Comets took down the expansion Florida Tropics.

The Comets started the game with a very high press, keeping the Tropics pinned in their own end for much of the early going. KC was rewarded for the pressure with a goal off a set piece less than four minutes in as John Sosa laid the ball off the Leo Gibson who fired home from the corner of the box. The Comets continued the pressure but were unable to add to their lead until late in the quarter off another set piece. Off a corner Sosa played a ball through the middle of the box where Bryan Perez had made a run and just had to tap the ball into the net to put the Comets on top 2-0 as the quarter came to an end. The second quarter saw the Comets extend their lead to three goals six minutes in as Brian Harris raced down the wing to receive a pass, Harris' shot was saved but Ramone Palmer had continued his run to the top of the box where he fired the loose ball into the net to make it 3-0 to the Comets. Florida finally got themselves on the board in the final minute of the quarter on a counter attack as the Comets were searching to extend their lead. In a two on one situation Ricardo De Queiroz Diegues and Marco Rodriguez played a give and go to get Stephan Paterson to commit before Diegues finished to send the teams into the break with the Comets up 3-1.

Early in the third quarter the Tropics again cut into the lead, making it a single goal as Victor Rojas capitalized on a turnover by the Comets in their own end to make it 3-2. The Tropics continued to pressure trying to find an equalizer throughout the quarter. Late in the quarter though the Comets capitalized on a mistake by the Tropics defense to push their lead back to two goals as Perez jumped a pass by the Tropics goalkeeper. Racing in on goal, Perez fired a shot off the glass that went right to Stefan Stokic, who just had to tap the ball into the empty net to make it 4-2 heading into the final quarter.

The Comets were able to extend their lead to three goals less than four minutes into the fourth quarter as Gibson picked up a ball at midfield before playing it wide to Perez, who in turn fired the ball off the wall to Gibson at the top of the box. Gibson fired his shot on goal but it was blocked, Gibson reacted first to the rebound and slotted it home to put the Comets up 5-2. The three goal lead lasted less than two minutes before Diegues scored his second of the game off a beautiful back heel on a long ball into the box to make it 5-3. The Tropics pressed for another goal and after inserting the sixth attacker scored a fourth with just over three minutes left on a blast from long range by sixth attacker Victor Parreiras that hit off the underside of the cross bar and into the net. The Tropics continued pushing with the sixth attacker looking for an equalizer that they thought they had with just over a minute left after a shot and scramble in front of goal, but Paterson came away with it and the referees ruled it wasn't a goal. The Comets immediately countered and Stokic was brought down in the corner by Anthony Arico on a tackle born out of frustration for not getting the goal at the other end. A blue card was handed out and the Comets looked to see the game out. With the man advantage the Comets played keep away and eventually pulled the Tropics four defenders up field enough that Perez was sprung in behind the defense. He fed the ball into the middle for Gibson who got the Tropics goalkeeper to commit to him before sliding a pass back across goal for Perez who had set up at the far post to tap home to make it 6-4 to the Comets.

With the win KC move to 5-3 on the season and will host the same Tropics team on December 30th in their next game.